Lock of the Week picks, The Pour House and some other crap
It's been far too long since I've done this mainly because I'm lazy. Ok it's entirely because I'm lazy. Cut me some slack, I'm dealing with a lot of minor and relatively insignificant crap. Anyways I'm here now so be thankful as I'm a much better writer than I am a speaker. As I've sent a note out to my very meager mailing list and posted on the Gram, et al about this blog post, I assume this is your first time here. Be prepared for missing words, misspellings, punctuation in the wrong place and overused ellipses...
Last week I talked about the closing of McGreevy's on Boylston St. (I just realized that there's no 'e' in Boylston. Odd.) and now just the last couple of days has seen two more venerable watering holes close in the Pour House and Lir. I'm not counting Whiskey's because that place smelled like a rotting corpse and their food was borderline cat food...wait, I wouldn't feed my cat their shit food so it was actually worse than cat food.
At any rate, it's sad that haunts that so many in the Boston area have grown to love are now closing in what can only be described as a massive commercial real estate reset caused by the ongoing global pandemic. As I'm not an expert in anything and certainly nothing close to one when it comes to commercial real estate in large cities, one has to surmise that the cost to rent or lease these spaces is through the roof. Landlords are "hurting" during this time as well and I use the quotes because there's no way that it's to the same affect as the owners of these two establishments. Could I be wrong about that? Sure, but I'm not counting on it.
I read an interesting Twitter thread yesterday about landlords and how some are handling their business during the pandemic and while the author could clearly be see as a being a bit bias, he's not really wrong. See, the author is co-founder of Boloco which I've never liked, but he and I had a fun Twitter exchange a couple of years ago...or at least I found it fun!
I've yet to cash in on that burrito. I had the pleasure of visiting another great local haunt, the Banshee in Dorchester and not only did they have outdoor seating, they also had outfitted the interior seating to follow the local guidelines. Losing out on Prudential Mall traffic, Red Sox home games, office workers and tourists is truly the reason why these places lost so much business, but I guess I would've like to have seen these joints try to adapt to the situation. Yes, I know, I'm an asshole for saying that, but I just can't imagine going down without a fight after owning a business for as long as these places were open. HOWEVER, the landlords not having the backs of their tenants during the single worst downturn in the area's history, is fucking shitty. There was no mention of their particular situation on any of the Pour House social media channels while a number of other businesses that I follow have been talking about it ad nauseam to stress the fact that this could be a possibility.
I don't know anything other than the fact that I'm talking out of my substantial ass here. I'm like everyone else when I say that I wish this whole thing didn't happen. Then again, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, amiright!? Actually no, I'm not right. If something doesn't kill you then you're fine. It's not like you're suddenly immune to dog bites if you get by a dog one time. Dumb saying and I'm sorry for using it.
Anyhoo...
Continuing the theme of not having any sort of actual theme for the pod, adding a dedicated gambling blog to the whole thing fits just as well as everything else that I've done with my life. No consistency or patience of any kind!
9/2 Picks
Scott Banksley:
PGA Tour Championship: (1u each)
Tony Finau - Top 10 +190
Dustin Johnson - Win +200
Justin Thomas - Win +520
Dave LaPaid:
PGA Tour Championship: (1u each)
Webb Simpson - Top 5 +110
Webb Simpson - Win +910
Harris English - Top 10 +135
Long Shot Special: Daniel Berger - Win +2500
I don't think Dustin Johnson holds on this week despite playing very well over the past month. As I mentioned on the show yesterday, he's been at the top of his game, but golf has a tendency to humble even the best players and I think that's coming.
Good news story of the day: Dog has absurdly wealthy family that usually lives on a yacht ship him from North Carolina to Australia.
Song of the day:
"I Wash My Hands In Muddy Water" - Elvis Presley. I dislike roughly 95% of all country music, but I like this Rockabilly Elvis more than the gospel or country Elvis. This is awesome. James Burton on guitar here and it's also awesome. He played with pretty much everyone. Ever. My recent obsession with Elvis continues...
That's it for this obnoxiously long blog post. I hope you didn't hate it, but if you did, please let me know.
617-65-RIP EM or showmail@complaintsandobservations.com.
Thanks and Tell Your Friends.